Scandals and scams are part of every country, and it remains in the shadows until the news is broken for the public to find out. But none of this would be possible without great talent and grit in the nation. Most of this courage emerges from the hearts of journalists who plan on taking down all the evil tentacles that have a grasp over the world. Therefore, every country needs responsible citizens and journalists to direct the government and every other person in power towards the light. Though cleansing may not have happened over the decades solely through the actions of journalists, the world has changed for good. It is the role of investigative journalism in this globe of occurrences that sparked up the blazing fire of transformation.
Using circuitous ways to express the emotions and rights of people tersely is the charm every journalist has possessed. Several stories have been dug out to be brought into the light, but not many journalists have succeeded in infusing a sense of justice. However, there have been certain legends who have played their role well to investigate the various fields ranging from politics to cinema. Let us look at the duties of every investigative journalist.
The Various Tools
Investigative journalists have had to use various tools to make things work on the stories they have been trying to publish as the scoop for many other rivals to feed on for the longest time. Some of the tools most investigative journalists use on stories are:
- Document analysis includes checking through legal documents, regulatory reports, corporal financial filings, government reports, tax records, and lawsuits.
- Study social issues.
- Investigation of the legal and technical issues involved in the government.
- Interviews
- Federal or State Acts to gather all the necessary information from the documents and agencies.
Responsibilities
Every investigative journalist is under the obligation of reporting the truth through every story. Besides this most fundamental responsibility all journalists have to fulfill, investigative journalists have a few other exclusive duties, such as:
- Watching everything that goes on around them to expose hypocrisy and crimes.
- Calling the authorities and powerful to account, and as a result, expose all forms of corruption. All democracies must practice this in order to bring all the crimes to the public eye.
- Anyone violating the law mustn’t be allowed to wallow in the dark. Investigative journalism should aim particularly on such people who focus on finding shortcuts to success.
- The whole concept of this type of journalism is to uproot every story to reveal all details that were kept hidden from the public.
- Biased reports are the last thing any investigative report must make since it is their duty to show every fact in all its precision.
- Potential abuses of power should also be an area of focus for these journalists to positively impact those innocent lives that have been affected by the wrong person in power.